Beijing’s Dense Network of Surveillance Cameras Poses a Major Threat to Zhongnanhai

Surveillance cameras surrounding Beijing's Tiananmen Square closely monitor the movements of people in the area. (Screenshot from the internet)

[People News] The precision strike by U.S. and Israeli forces that eliminated more than 40 senior Iranian officials—including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—has undoubtedly shocked the leadership in Zhongnanhai, Beijing. Along with the shock comes a deep sense of fear. Those in China’s top leadership circles, who share certain parallels with Khamenei, cannot rule out the possibility that such a scenario could one day unfold in Beijing. The relatively subdued response from Beijing officials reflects this unease.

On March 2, Jason Brodsky, policy director of the United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), referenced a striking report published by the Financial Times in a post on X regarding the operation targeting Khamenei.

According to the report, Israel had hacked into nearly all of Tehran’s traffic cameras over many years. Through these systems, they tracked the commuting routines of members of the Vali-e Amr Protection Unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—the bodyguards responsible for protecting Khamenei—along Pasteur Street. Interestingly, the operation was reportedly assisted not by Israel’s Mossad but by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

This account suggests that the elimination of Khamenei and other Iranian officials was closely linked to surveillance camera data. Online, an unverified video reportedly details how the movements of Iranian officials were monitored, highlighting the intelligence gathering, analysis, and inference capabilities of the U.S. and Israel.

Notably, key technologies and infrastructure for Iran’s national surveillance system were reportedly supplied by several Chinese technology companies, including Huawei, ZTE, Tiandy Technologies, and Hikvision. If U.S. and Israeli intelligence could penetrate surveillance systems built with Chinese technology, it raises an unsettling question: could the vast network of cameras across mainland China also be vulnerable to similar infiltration? This possibility alone is enough to make Zhongnanhai deeply uneasy.

China currently possesses the world’s largest video surveillance network. More than half of the world’s surveillance cameras are reportedly installed in China. Data suggest that by the end of 2025, the total number of surveillance cameras installed nationwide had reached between 750 million and 800 million. Based on China’s official population figure of 1.4 billion, this amounts to roughly one camera for every two people—far exceeding most other countries on a per-capita basis.

In Beijing, the capital, surveillance cameras are especially dense throughout major streets and neighborhoods. The massive concentration of cameras around Tiananmen Square is often cited as an example of the scale of China’s monitoring infrastructure.

In January 2021, the Daily Mail reported that a study by the cybersecurity company Surfshark ranked the world’s cities by surveillance camera density per unit area. Six Chinese cities—Beijing, Harbin, Xiamen, Chengdu, Taiyuan, and Kunming—appeared in the top ten. Beijing ranked first globally, with approximately 1.15 million cameras.

Earlier analyses by the British technology review site Comparitech examined the world’s 150 most populous cities and found that 18 of the top 20 cities with the highest surveillance camera density were in China. Taiyuan, in Shanxi Province, ranked first.

According to data from the research firm IHS Markit at the end of 2019, there were at least 770 million surveillance cameras worldwide at the time, and about 54 percent—more than half—were installed in China.

Reports indicate that as early as 2004, Chinese authorities began aggressively implementing programs such as the “Safe City” and “Skynet” initiatives in cities like Chengdu, investing heavily in camera networks and video surveillance systems. Technologies such as facial recognition, big-data processing, and artificial intelligence were gradually incorporated, enabling widespread monitoring, tracking, and control of citizens across the country, leaving little room for personal privacy.

In 2016, authorities expanded this system from cities into rural areas through the so-called “Sharp Eyes Project,” extending comprehensive surveillance coverage to China’s 1.4 billion residents and creating what is widely described as an unprecedented nationwide monitoring network.

However, what China’s leadership may not have anticipated is that the cameras originally installed to monitor the public could eventually pose a risk to themselves. Their own movements—and those of their security personnel—could potentially be tracked not only by satellites but also through compromised camera systems. To fully conceal their movements, they might have to shut down many cameras—but doing so would also weaken the very surveillance system used to monitor the population.

Faced with this dilemma, how will the CCP leadership choose?

(First published by People News) △